These devices are compact, economical, and have been designed to reduce the bill of materials, simplify board layout, and shorten time to market for power conversion, motor control, and smart sensing applications.
The dsPIC33AK256MPS306 family, based on a 200 MHz, 32-bit core with a double-precision floating-point unit (FPU), integrates high-resolution 78 ps pulse-width modulators (PWMs), several 12-bit, 40 MSPS analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), high-speed 5 ns comparators, and slope-compensated digital-to-analog converters (DACs). These features help achieve fast, deterministic control loops for high-efficiency DC/DC converters, auxiliary power rails, and smart sensing designs, such as systems based on silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors operating at high switching frequencies.
“We’re seeing customers looking beyond individual components and paying more attention to how quickly and confidently they can build a system,” said Joe Thomsen, corporate vice president of Microchip’s DSC business unit. “These DSCs meet such needs by bringing together a wide range of control, analog, and safety features into a single device. This integration, along with a comprehensive development ecosystem, helps teams manage complexity and meet evolving performance and cybersecurity requirements from the earliest design phases through to deployment.”
The dsPIC33AK256MPS306 family incorporates hardware security features to implement secure boot, secure firmware updates, and secure debugging to meet increasingly demanding cybersecurity requirements.
These devices offer library support for the post-quantum cryptographic algorithms recommended by CNSA (Commercial National Security Algorithm) Suite 2.0 and feature hardware-accelerated cryptographic capabilities required in OCP (Open Compute Project) power supplies and other connected real-time control designs. Real-time upgradeability facilitates the seamless firmware updates demanded by modern server designs.
The devices incorporate I3C connectivity for scalable, low-latency telemetry, sensor networks on modern servers and industrial racks, as well as other communication interfaces such as CANFD, LIN, SPI, I2C, and SENT.
Thanks to its fast execution of trigonometric sinusoidal and cosine functions in 20 ns, the core architecture of the dsPIC33A family helps designers implement fast position control algorithms and efficient field-oriented control (FOC). The dsPIC33AK256MPS306 family includes mechanical motor feedback interfaces that are compatible with BiSS-C (Bidirectional Serial Synchronous), EnDat, and quadrature/optical encoders and resolvers. In addition to a high level of analog integration, these devices help achieve a real-time, accurate, and high-resolution control loop that improves the overall performance of the motor control algorithm.
An Integrated Touch Controller (ITC) and 40 MSPS A/D converters with built-in oversampling for up to 16-bit resolution are designed to simplify complex human-machine interface and sensing applications. The high level of integration reduces the need for external components and allows designers to implement advanced features without adding hardware. Furthermore, the small package size makes it suitable for space-constrained designs.
The devices have been developed following functional safety processes for the automotive (ISO 26262) and industrial (IEC 61508) sectors and include hardware safety features that help expedite the certification of safety-critical applications. The dsPIC33AK256MPS306 DSCs will be certified for use in automotive applications up to 150°C.
Development Ecosystem
: The family is supported by Microchip's comprehensive development ecosystem, including MPLAB® X IDE (Integrated Development Environment), MPLAB Code Configurator, and MPLAB Machine Learning Development Suite. The dsPIC33AK256MPS306 devices now support the Zephyr® real-time operating system (RTOS), giving designers access to an open-source ecosystem and a unified platform for building scalable embedded applications.
The DSC dsPIC33A also supports FreeRTOS™, SafeRTOS® (certified) and wolfCrypt® libraries (including post-quantum cryptography), Vector's MICROSAR IO and Lauterbach's TRACE32® debugging and tracing tools.
For evaluation and rapid prototyping, Microchip offers a Dual In-line Module (DIM) for motor control using the dsPIC33AK256MPS306 microcontroller. This module is designed for use with the MCS MCLV-48V-300W development board and the MCHV-230VAC-1.5kW high-voltage motor control development board, enabling the development of scalable low- and high-voltage motor control solutions. The dsPIC33AK512MPS506 Digital Power Plug-In Module (PIM), compatible with the Digital Power development board, facilitates the development of power conversion applications. A general-purpose dsPIC33AK256MPS306 DIM is also available for the dsPIC33 Curiosity platform development board, providing a flexible platform for general system control, sensing, and evaluation. Learn more at Microchip.com.
Compatibility with model-based design using MATLAB® and Microchip's growing library of reference designs for power and motor control helps accelerate development and system integration.
